Category Archives: Economics

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Throwing good money after bad

It was thanks to Robert Stacy McCain that I saw this tweet from the Defender of the Republic.

Britney Spears has a guesstimated net worth of $60 million, according to Forbes, or perhaps a paltry $40 million, estimated by Celebrity Net Worth. The Defender wondered why no one could help a clearly wealthy and attractive woman. I know virtually nothing about Miss Spears, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the answer is that no one has helped her because she doesn’t want to be helped.

Which brings me to the more serious:

Only two people have successfully completed the Kensington ‘wellness court’ so far. The Parker administration wants to expand it.

Nearly two-thirds of the more than 40 people brought before the court since late January have dropped out of treatment within days, and then failed to appear at follow-up hearings.

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Why don’t we return to charitable giving? Why must everything be through the government?

It was back in 2023 that one of my fellow parishioners at St Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church told us that the Estill County Community Food Bank was losing the ‘extra’ money coming from the federal government in COVID-19 ’emergency’ money was ending. The parish council then decided that we would take up a quarterly extra second collection specifically for the Food Bank, and I’m happy to say that most of those second collections netted slightly over $1,000 for the organization.

I thought of that when I saw the tweet on the right from WPVI-TV in Philadelphia, and the following (brief) story:

Delaware Food Bank loses nearly 1M meals after Trump administration ended food aid funding

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Can The Washington Post be saved? The newspaper industry has updated as much as possible, but it's still 18th century technology.

We have previously reported on how owner Jeff Bezos’ decision that The Washington Post not make any endorsement for President in 2024 cost the newspaper hundreds of thousand of subscriptions.

But now columnist Joe Concha of the New York Post says that Mr Bezos is doing what is necessary to save one of our nation’s newspapers of record:

Three cheers for Jeff Bezos, fighting to save The Washington Post from itself

By Joe Concha | Thursday, March 6, 2025 6:52 PM EST

Jeff Bezos is one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs — but making his Washington Post staffers face reality may be his toughest-ever career challenge.

A long time ago in a media galaxy that now seems far, far away, the Post was one of the most respected newspapers in the country, capturing 68 Pulitzers in the process. Continue reading →

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Not everything has to be a federal government project!

Under our 47th President, the sensible people in charge are looking at all of the spending in which the federal government engages. With the FY2024 federal budget deficit at $1.83 trillion — that’s trillion, a thousand billion, or a million million dollars — and FY2025 possibly going to be more, the Trump Administration is taking a battle axe to spending where it can, because a battle axe is what is needed. Tiny little cuts by going over everything with a fine-toothed comb will never work, because there’s always some purportedly good reason to spend for someone’s pet project. The battle axe method is the right thing to do, and then, after that is done, we can check to see if anything truly essential was cut and needs to be restored.

Trump administration freezes $12 million meant to help Philly plant thousands of trees

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The Washington Post conflates current house painting fashion with race

The Washington Post published an article on neighborhood gentrification on Sunday, and a lot of readers, to judge by the comments, saw it as completely racist. Perhaps, just perhaps, not everything is about race.

The house color that tells you when a neighborhood is gentrifying

A Washington Post color analysis of D.C. found shades of gray permeate neighborhoods where the White population has increased and the Black population has decreased.

By Marissa J. Lang and John D. Harden | Sunday, March 2, 2025 | 6:00 AM EST

If you live in an American city, chances are you have seen this house: Its exterior is gray with monochromatic accents. Maybe there’s a pop of color — a red, blue or yellow door. The landscaping is restrained, all clean lines and neat minimalism. Sleek metal address numbers appear crisp in a modern sans-serif font. Continue reading →

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Joy Reid and DEI: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

With the news that MSNBC has cancelled Joy Reid’s prime time show, my Twitter feed filled up with the laments of the left over that, and the inevitable complaints that she was fired because of raaaaacism the network hates black women. Former Representative Jamaal Brown (D-NY) tweeted:

Joy Reid educated a nation every single night. She is a beacon on MSNBC and all of media! Shame on MSNBC for this. SHAME SHAME SHAME! We have to build our own multimedia empire. Anchored in truth, and justice and humanity. We stand up for Black people, and GAZA and the LGBTQ, and oppressed people and vulnerable people everywhere! And we will never stop!

I absolutely support the right of Dr Brown — he tells us that he’s an “Ed.D.” in his Twitter handle — to build his own multimedia empire! We have freedom of speech and of the press in this country, and anyone can say anything he wishes, can start and try to build a show, at network, a publishing empire, whatever.

Elie Mystal, whom Dr Brown included in his tweet, is the “Justice Correspondent and Columnist” for The Nation, the socialist-left opinion journal, so he had plenty of space to express his opinion.

The Value of Joy

By canceling Joy Reid’s cable news show, MSNBC has not only silenced a brilliant host: It’s silenced the next Black voice you haven’t yet heard.

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Beware the Ides of March!

Happy St Valentine’s Day!

I awoke this morning to a tweet from Libs of TikTok, noting that yet another federal judge has tried to block President Trump’s ‘pause’ in foreign aid spending.

Judge orders Trump administration to temporarily allow funds for foreign aid

by the Associated Press | Thursday, February 13, 2025 | 11:53 PM EST

WASHINGTON — A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to temporarily lift a three-week funding freeze that has shut down U.S. aid and development programs worldwide.

Judge Amir Ali issued the order Thursday in U.S. district court in Washington in a lawsuit brought by two health organizations that receive U.S. funding for programs abroad.

Newsweek noted that Judge Ali was one of President Joe Biden’s last judicial appointees, confirmed by the then Democrat-controlled Senate after the election. Continue reading →

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Credit where credit is due!

I had never heard of Olivia Julianna before Thursday morning, when I saw this tweet from “Bad Hombre.” Naturally, there were many, many responses along the lines that a hunger strike would do her a lot of good.

But, good decent researcher that I am, I decided to look a bit more deeply, and Google searched her, finding her Twitter account. I wanted to see if she had actually declared a hunger strike until USAID is restored. An admittedly cursory look didn’t find anything like that for her, though she does have other social media channels I did not see.

But I did find this from Miss Julianna, in which she tweeted:

I’m actually down 50 pounds because I can’t afford to eat in Trump’s economy 🙁

That’s pretty amazing! The Trump economy caused her to lose 50 pounds! And, given that Donald Trump had been President for only 16 days when she tweeted that, on February 5th, that’s pretty amazing. Way more effective than Ozempic. Continue reading →

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Jenice Armstrong is all kind of sadz. Target, which already has plenty of 'diversity' in their company, is ending their 'DEI' program

My far too expensive Philadelphia Inquirer subscription. I could use a senior citizen’s discount right about now.

As I look at thinning the herd on some of my subscriptions, I note that I am paying more for The Philadelphia Inquirer than for The New York Times and The Washington Post, both of which are better newspapers. But, not only am I more connected to the City of Brotherly Love, the Inky does provide some unrivaled entertainment!

I’m going to miss shopping at Target

Now that Target has announced a rollback of its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, I don’t know if I’ll ever step back inside.

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